In a world where blogs are as common as bumper stickers and YouTube has made viral videos as hot as Napster downloads were in their heyday, it's no wonder marketers are looking to John Q. Public for ideas. Corporations are jumping on the viral bandwagon in an attempt to appeal to a population for which decrying advertising has become a philosophically based rallying cry.

Meanwhile, inexpensive digital cameras, more-powerful computers, easy-to-use editing and publishing software and the proliferation of broadband makes it easy for anyone with a laptop and some imagination to express him- or herself in hitherto out-of-reach ways.

"Traditional marketing methods have fallen short," Decker said in explaining why he expects viewer-created ads to take off in the market, particularly for the 18- to 34-year-olds who watch Current TV. "This demographic does not respond positively to something overly produced and (that is a) hard sell."

Melody, the 17 year old teen that’s been promoting her home-made videos on YouTube, caused a rise in Logitech’s sales on Amazon.com all by herself by simply explaining her webcam’s features to ‘the world out there’. People have been asking her in her comments about that remarkable cam she has and in one of her posts she explains it’s Logitech’s Quickcam Orbit MP. Although some paper in Belgium rants about 300K downloads, YouTube doesn’t offer downloads and the viewer counter shows a very decent 195,937 right now. Some weblogs suggested she’d be working for Logitech, but ‘Bowiechick’ clearly claims she doesn’t. How one consumer can make a difference...

Viral marketing (word-of-mouth marketing) is a really cool thing. Just think about it... instead of spending an insane amount of money on newspapers ads, TV commercials or banner ads, you spent nothing - and let your fans do all the work for you.

With viral marketing, your campaigns will suddenly get a life of its own - and start to spread like a virus. Everyone want to see it, and when they do, they all want to share it.

It is immensely powerful, usually having 500-1000 times greater impact than what you get from regular advertisements.